Papers and Ink

It's that time of year again. The second week in October should have a note in it to make ink. The walnuts have fallen in suffecient quantity that they're easy to find and it's not too hot outside that you can't boil the bejezus out of the slurry to reduce it down to a good concentration. With fall in the air and the pumpkins ripe, it's time to throw some strange ingredients into a pot, stir with a stick and enjoy the moment.

And that's what I did.

Yesterday, my day off, was spent grading papers for my Intro Psych and Soc classes. It was also the day when I put a pot of walnut ink on to boil. As walnut ink takes at least three hours of simmering to reduce in volume, I try and plan something so that I'm able to watch it fairly easy and stay with it so it doesn't boil dry or froth over in the early stages. The process of making Walnut ink is fairly simple; much more simple than grading intro Psych exams.

Preparation of the Walnuts:

1. Gather non-rotten walnuts, at least half a satchel full.
2. Get a veggy grater from Big Lots - one that you don't mind never using for anything else.
3. Find a rubber / latex glove for at least one hand.
4. I use a shallow, plastic plan to collect the walnut shavings when I grate them. I think this one is a cheap litter pan also from Big Lots.
5. Shred up half of the satchel's load of walnuts if they're small.
   
1. With the drought this year, the walnuts were very tiny.
2. You're looking for about a fourth of a gallon of shredded material.
3. Toss the walnuts (not the hull that you're shaving off) into the woods to 'recycle' them.
4. I use the largest side of the shredder otherwise it gums up too fast.
   
6. Add the shredded hulls to about three-quarters of a gallon of water and let it soak over night.

After the slurry soaked over night, pour it into a large pot over a medium to low fire and stir occasionally.

So while I was watching the slurry cook down, I started grading my papers.



Let me give you some background about the Psychology assignment that I was grading: It's a combination extra-credit assignment and take-home test. My students didn't do so well on their first test so I assigned them to take a copy of the test home and using their notes and text book, answer the questions. It was designed to give the students some free points to help bring their grades up since some didn't have their text books until a week before the test. I assumed that I would get a few mistakes here and there but nothing too terrible since it was OPEN BOOK.

What I got back from my students can only be described as laziness. Most of the students missed between 8 and 9 questions out of a 50 question test. This is technically the second time that they should have reviewed the materials. In my opinion, the students shouldn't miss more than four or five to get full credit and no less than 10 to get any credit. Thankfully, over half of the students who actually turned in the assignment, got partial or full credit. However, I caught two students cheating.

Cheating, on a take-home assignment.

I saw that one of the assignments was poorly photocopied. What makes it worse, is that they student photocopied the test AFTER she wrote her answers. (they were mostly wrong to begin with) The copy had a pen used to poorly cover the original answers in hopes that I wouldn't notice the similarities.

As if.

Once I discovered the cheating, I put the tests down for a second to strain out the shredded hulls from the slurry.

I use a strainer that is just for making ink and remove most of the cooked, shredded hulls. Once I remove the material, I can let it boil down to about one-fifth of its original volume.

So then I went back to my papers and finished up with Psychology. There were no more cheaters found but I wasn't happy with the number of students who just didn't put in the effort to get any points. They're just not getting it. Then later, I worked on Sociology and enjoyed myself a lot more.

I've found that this term, my Sociology class is the 'good' one. They're more willing to discuss the topics, debate the issues and generally come prepared. Psych - not so much.

So now I'll be turning in the students for Academic Dishonesty and sealing up the ink for later use.

-Tom